'Kewpie' Ross

Biography

"Kewpie" Ross was an obese comedian who appeared in silent two-reel slapstick comedies with two other heavyweights, Frank Alexander and Hilliard Karr, in F.B.O.'s low-budget "Ton of Fun" series at the end of the silent era. The troika of very fat comedians, each of whom topped the scale at 300 lbs (Alexander weighed 350 at the height of his fame), made their debut as a comedy team in 1925's Tailoring (1925), with Alexander billed as "Tiny Alexander" (he would later take on the moniker "Fatty" for the series) and Karr as "Fat Karr". Produced by 'Joe Rock', the shorts were made by the Poverty Row studio Standard Photoplay Co. and released by Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Office (F.B.O.), the precursor to R.K.O Radio Pictures. The series was made, in those far-less politically correct, less health-conscious times, to serve as part of the bill for budget-conscious theaters catering to the masses in the days when the movies were king, and television still a gleam in the eyes and imaginations of inventors and radio moguls. Advertized by F.B.O. as the "three fattest men on the screen, Kewpie romped across the screen with fellow fat men Fatty Alexander and Fat Karr in 34 shorts, many with the adjective "Heavy" in the title (The Heavy Parade (1926), Heavy Fullbacks (1926), Heavy Infants (1928) and the strangely named Heavyation (1926)). Also billed as "The Three Fatties", the "Ton of Fun" team offered the most anarchic comedy per pound available at the time or after. In the series entry Three of a Kind (1926), The Three Fatties play entertainers at a nightclub/restaurant. In short order, a mêlée breaks out between the audience and A Ton of Fun, with the expected result of tables overturned and dishes smashed. In another entry, Heavy Love (1926), they portray three of the most inept carpenters who ever drove a nail through a board, let alone a skull. The Three Fatties get themselves a job working for a young lady (Lois Boyd) and end up building and subsequently destroying the most bizarre house ever seen. After making the last "Ton of Fun" comedy in 1928, A Joyful Day (1928), "Kewpie" Ross retired from the scene.